1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle control apparatus and vehicle control method which performs driving assist control on an entrance ramp or exit ramp connected to a main road where the safe cruising speed limit is different than it is on the entrance ramp or the exit ramp.
2. Description of the Related Art Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-10-141491, for example, includes road information storing means for storing road information, host vehicle position detecting means for detecting the position of the host vehicle on the road, vehicle speed detecting means for detecting the vehicle speed, connecting road detecting means for detecting a connecting road that connects with a road having different attributes from the stored road information, control zone setting means for setting a control zone based on the host vehicle position and the detected connecting road, automatic transmission for select gear ratio automatically, gear ratio regulating means for determining a range into which the gear ratio can be shifted based on the vehicle speed in the control zone, driving operation detecting means for detecting a driving operation by a driver, and gear ratio setting means for setting the gear ratio selected by an automatic transmission to within the determined range based on a predetermined driving operation.
In the foregoing technology, the connecting road is detected from the stored road information and the control zone is set based on the detected host vehicle position and connecting road. As a result, depending on the accuracy of the road information and the detection accuracy of the host vehicle position, the positional relationship between the host vehicle position and the starting and ending points of the connecting road may not be able to be accurately detected. As a result, an accurate control zone may not be able to be set.